A closer look at Greenwich's school cafeteria inspections

Maggie Gordon

Updated 8:35 pm, Saturday, January 5, 2013

Greenwich's public school cafeterias failed health inspections a total of 13 times between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2012, with Glenville Elementary School failing more inspections than any other school in town, according to an analysis performed by Hearst Connecticut Newspapers.

Glenville, a school on Riversville Road with 409 students, failed inspections five times over the five-year period, which ties the school at No. 7 for most failures in the county, behind schools in Weston, Redding and Norwalk. Schools can "fail" an inspection in one of two ways: by earning a score less than 80 out of 100 possible points, or by being cited for one or more four-point violations during an inspection. In the case of Glenville, all five failures were the result of at least one four-point violation. The lowest score the school earned was an 82 on April 25, 2008.

During that inspection -- which was the lowest scoring inspection in the entire district -- a health official noted there were "no hair restraints" on scene for workers, the "3-compartment sink is not available to wash-rinse-sanitize," cream cheese was found to be kept outside its safe temperature zone and "rags for wiping are not stored in sanitizer," among other violations.

But overall, the cleanliness of cafeterias in Greenwich compared well with schools throughout Fairfield County.

Throughout the course of the 178 inspections performed throughout the town's schools, Greenwich boasted a pass rate of 93 percent, which was slightly higher than the county's overall pass rate of 91 percent.

And Greenwich had the largest number of perfect scores among the county's districts, with 98 reports coming back without so much as a floor in need of sweeping, including seven at Glenville. Norwalk Public Schools had the second largest number of perfect 100s, with 52 clean sweeps.

Still, there were a few violations that jumped out from the pack as the most frequent issues noted in the town.

On average, Greenwich's cafeterias were inspected 2.7 times a year, slightly less frequently than they should have been, according to the state health code. In that time, one box was checked off more times than any other: No. 17, a one-point violation regarding the maintenance of "nonfood-contact surfaces" such as stove tops and shelves that never come in contact with food, was cited 16 times during the five-year period.

It's a relatively harmless violation, according to Long.

"It has to do with repair of nonfood-contact service, so we typically would give any food service establishment time to address that, but it wouldn't be something that would fail them," he said of the violation.

The second-most frequently cited violation was a little more worrisome, he said.

Box No. 7, a two-point violation that inspectors would mark if food was not protected during storage or preparation was checked 14 times. Unlike No. 17, No. 7 is a "risk-factor violation," which could have potential effects on health and safety in the cafeteria.

It is also the most frequently cited risk-factor violation in the entire county, with 374 appearances on inspection sheets. In fact, the only violation noted more times was No. 17, which was cited on 522 occasions throughout the county.

Since No. 7 is worth two points on the inspection sheet, the violation won't result in a failure for the school, but Stamford's director of environmental inspections, Ron Miller, said it's "a big concern," which would be noted in an instance when ready-to-eat food like apples or vegetables are next to uncovered chicken, beef or pork, since it could result in cross-contamination and illness.